Obituaries Australia

 It is with extreme regret that we announce the death of this gentleman [Howard Reed]. The event took place at Bowral, on Saturday last, after a long and painful illness of five or six months' duration. This gentleman was the youngest son of Dr. Andrew Reed, the greatest benefactor of the age in which he lived, having during his life, by singular power influenced the public to the erection of six of the largest benevolent foundations in England–the London Orphan Asylum, at a cost of £25,000, in 1812; the Infant Orphan Asylum, in 1827, at a cost of £40,000; the Asylum for Fatherless Children, in 1844, at a cost of £22,320; the Asylum for Idiots, in 1847, at a cost of £39,000; the Royal Hospital for Incurables, in 1844, at a cost of £3000; the Eastern Counties Idiot Asylum, at a cost of about £20,000. Mr. Howard Reed was brought up to farming and agricultural pursuits, and was greatly instrumental in the formation of several of the larger and most successful Agricultural Counties' Associations in England. It was during this time that his services were in great request by the Agricultural Periodicals in England; and for several years he was the acknowledged contributor to the London Times respecting associations of the above description. Having about eight years ago expressed a desire to visit the Australian colonies, he was engaged by the proprietors of this journal and the Sydney Mail to conduct the pastoral and agricultural portion of these newspapers. Mr. Reed's singular adaptation for this particular department of literary labour has been generally admitted throughout the colonies. The great want of New South Wales of an Agricultural Society was Mr. Reed's earliest discovery, and he set himself to work with other gentlemen to this purpose. To this he devoted nights and days, with a determination that never flagged until the New South Wales Agricultural Association was established, and the first Council elected. It is well known to the members of the society, that especially at the first, and also on subsequent annual exhibitions, how greatly and gratuitously he laboured to make them highly successful. It is right to say that Mr. Reed had ample aid and assistance from agricultural gentlemen of high standing and ability throughout the colony; and he was greatly esteemed by the successive Presidents of the Society, as Lord Lisgar (then Sir John Young), the Earl of Belmore, and subsequently by his Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson, the present Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales.

The remains of this much-respected friend were interred yesterday in the graveyard surrounding the church at Bowral, lately erected by a bequest left by the late Mrs. S. H. Harrison, and we are informed is the first burial that has taken place in that cemetery; Mr. J. Grafton Ross and Mr. R. Nott, brothers-in-law of the deceased, being present.

Mr. Howard Reed was the brother of Sir Charles Reed, lately M.P. for Hackney in the British House of Commons, and now the Chairman of the London Board of Education.